Frederick Herzberg
The hygiene motivation
theory
Thinker 001
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) was a US clinical psychologist who later
became Professor of Management at Utah University. His "overriding
interest in mental health" stemmed from his belief that "mental health is the
core issue of our times". This was prompted by his posting to the Dachau
concentration camp after its liberation. On his return to America, he
worked for the US Public Health Service.
His hygiene-motivation theory was first published in The Motivation to Work
in 1959. Herzberg's work focused on the individual in the workplace, but it
has been popular with managers as it also emphasised the importance of
management knowledge and expertise.
Summary
The `hygiene-motivation' or `two factor' theory resulted from research with two hundred Pittsburgh
engineers and accountants. These people were asked what pleased and displeased them about their
jobs. From their responses, Herzberg concluded that man has two sets of needs:
lower level needs as an animal to avoid pain and deprivation
higher level needs as a human being to grow psychologically.
Some factors in the workplace meet the first set of needs but not the second and vice versa. The first
group of factors he called `hygiene factors' and the second, `motivators'.
Herzberg also coined the term `job enrichment', a technique which grew out of the hygiene-motivation
theory. Job enrichment involved including motivators in the design of jobs. In his famous Harvard
Business Review article (One more time: how do you motivate employees? published in 1968)
Herzberg also invented the acronym KITA (Kick In The Ass) to explain personnel practices such as
wage increases, fringe benefits and job participation which were developed as attempts to instil
motivation but are only short-term solutions.
The hygiene-motivation theory
KITA was used by Herzberg to explain why managers don't motivate employees. He demonstrated that
employees are not motivated by being kicked (figuratively speaking), or by being given more money or
benefits, a comfortable environment or reducing time spent at work. These elements were called `hygiene
factors' by Herzberg because they concern the context or environment in which a person works.
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Hygiene factors also include:
company policy and administration
supervision
working relationships
status and security.
These factors do not in themselves promote job satisfaction, but serve primarily to prevent job
dissatisfaction, just as good hygiene does not in itself produce good health, but lack of it will cause disease.
Herzberg also speaks of them as dissatisfiers or maintenance factors, since it is their absence or inadequacy
which causes dissatisfaction at work. Some factors are not true motivators as they need constant
reinforcement. Additionally, they increasingly come to be regarded as rights to be expected, rather than
incentives to greater satisfaction and achievement.
`Motivators' (also referred to as growth factors) relate to what a person does at work, rather than to the
context in which it is done.
They include:
achievement
recognition
the work itself
responsibility
advancement and growth.
Herzberg explains that the two sets of factors are separate and distinct because they are concerned with two
different sets of needs. They are not opposites.
Herzberg's hygiene-motivation theory is derived from the outcomes of several investigations into job
satisfaction and job dissatisfaction, studies which replicated his original research in Pittsburgh. The theory
proposes that most factors which contribute to job satisfaction are motivators (achievement, recognition, the
satisfaction of the work itself, responsibility and opportunities for advancement and growth) and most factors
which contribute to job dissatisfaction are hygiene elements (company policy, general management, the
individuall relationship with their manager and working conditions).
Most of the evidence on which Herzberg based his theory is relatively clear-cut. This is particularly the case
with regard to achievement and promotion prospects as potential job satisfiers and with regard to supervision
and job insecurity as factors which contribute principally to dissatisfaction.
The element which continues to cause some debate is salary/pay, which seems split down the middle.
Herzberg's evidence was not so clear here, although he placed salary with the disatissfiers. This would
seem the most appropriate classification; although pay may have some short-term motivational value, it is
difficult to conceive of it as a long-term motivator in the same manner as responsibility and achievement.
Most experience (and the history of industrial relations) would point to pay as a dissatisfier and therefore a
hygiene factor along with supervision, status, and security.
Herzberg used biblical allusions to illustrate his theory. He depicted man's basic needs as two parallel
arrows pointing in opposite directions. One arrow shows man's Animal-Adam nature, concerned with the
need to avoid physical deprivation (the hygiene factors), the other his Human-Abraham nature, needing to
realise the potential for perfection (the motivation factors).
Job enrichment was an extension of Herzberg's hygiene-motivation theory. He saw it as a continuous
management function which involved embracing motivators in job design. These included:
•
•
•
self-scheduling
control of resources
accountability
and undertaking specialised tasks to become expert in them.
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Herzberg in perspective
Herzberg's ideas have proved very durable. A late 1990s article, for example, draws on his classic 1968
Harvard Business Review article, and adapts his 'hygiene' and 'satisfier' factors to apply them to customer
satisfaction (Naumann and Jackson, 1999). His work can be seen - in common with that of Elton Mayo
(known for the Hawthorne Experiments), of Abraham Maslow (developer of the hierarchy of needs) and of
Douglas McGregor (creator of Theory X and Theory Y) - as a reaction to F W Taylor's Scientific Management
theories. These last focused on techniques which could be used to maximise the productivity of manual
workers and on the separation of mental and physical work between management and workers. In contrast,
Herzberg and his contemporaries believed that workers wanted the opportunity to feel part of a team and to
grow and develop.
Although Herzberg's theory is not highly regarded by psychologists today, managers have found in it useful
guidelines for action. Its basic tenets are easy to understand and can be applied to all types of organisation.
Furthermore, it appears to support the position and influence of management.
More specifically, its impact has been seen on reward systems, firstly in a move away from payment-byresults systems and today in the growing proportion of cafeteria benefits schemes, which allow individual
employees to choose the fringe benefits which best suit them.
Job enrichment was more theorised about than put into practice. Many schemes which were tried resulted
only in cosmetic changes or led to demands for increased worker control and were therefore terminated.
Nowadays the concept is more one of people enrichment, although this still owes much to Herzberg's
original work. His greatest contribution has been the knowledge that motivation comes from within the
individual; it cannot be imposed by an organisation according to some formula. Many of today's trends career management, self-managed learning, and empowerment - have a basis in Herzberg's insights.
Key works by Herzberg
The editions cited here, which may not always be the first edition, are those held in the CMI library. These
are available for loan to CMI members.
Books
Work and the nature of man
London: Staples Press, 1968
The managerial choice: to be efficient and to be human
Homewood, Ill: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1976
The motivation to work, 2nd edition, with Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch Snyderman
New York: John Wiley, 1959
Journal article
One more time: how do you motivate employees?
Harvard Business Review, vol 46 no 1, Jan/Feb 1968, pp53-62
This article was republished (Harvard Business Review, vol 65 no 5, Sep/Oct 1987, pp109-120) with a
retrospective commentary by the author. By the time of its reprint in 1987, this article had sold over one
million reprints, making it the most requested article in the Harvard Business Review's history.
Further reading
One more time - how do you satisfy customers?
Earl Naumann and Donald W. Jackson Business Horizons, vol 42, no 3, May/Jun 1999, pp71-76
Herzberg - still a key to understanding motivation, Donald Cameron
Training Officer, vol 32 no 6, Jul/Aug 1996, pp184-186
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Leadership and motivation: the fifty fifty rule and the eight key principles of motivating others, John
Adair,
London: Kogan Page, 2009
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Text revised June 2003
Further reading updated January 2012
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